1957 Chevrolet Truck - Eyes Of Texas

If it wasn’t for Jack Ellison’s love of old American iron, the story of his son’s ’57 Chevy pickup might have only been a short saga on CCT’s last page “The End?” You see the first time Jack saw the customized classic gracing these pages, it was a pair of Tri-Five Chevy trucks headed to the crusher. Jack outbid the junkman and loaded up the two old hulks and hauled them to his hot rod shop North Texas Rod & Custom in Kaufman, Texas.

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That was in 1989 when his son Jon was only 9 years old. At the very first stage of the build after Jack combined the best parts to make one truck, young Jon took a real liking to what he saw. It was such an intense attraction that his dad gave him the ’57, but it was a gift that came with some conditions. First of all, Jon had to keep his grades up, and second, he had to be at his father’s side every moment he was working on the truck. The idea was to teach Jon a trade and help him appreciate all the work and commitment it takes to build an old truck from the ground up.

They started at the frame and Jon got a firsthand lesson on how a Mustang II frontend goes on and how it drops the nose 5 inches. Moving from the frontend, Jon and his dad worked their way rearward boxing the framerails until they ended up with a Z-notch hanging a flipped Ford 9-inch diff packing 3.00:1 gears that’s dropped 6-inches. The tall gears help keep the ’57’s 350ci small-block Chevy motor backed with a TH350 down to a silent roar. Internal and external modifications include TRW 10.0:1 flattop pistons, HEI distributor, Comp cam, and Weiand intake with a four-barrel carb. The beefed TH350 automatic transmission offers bulletproof reliability without the complicated setup hassles sometimes associated with an overdrive automatic. Rolling stock is a combination of fully polished 17-inch American Torq-Thrusts II wheels shod with Goodyear Eagle GT tires. Impervious to the effects of ethanol, a Tanks Inc. poly gas tank resides under a polished aluminum diamond-plate bed floor with a sunken filler neck.

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The interior bedsides and headboard are covered with sculpted panels upholstered to match the interior. Speaking of upholstery the entire interior was done in-house thanks to Jack learning the upholstery trade from an elderly German immigrant trained in the old country. That said, there’s nothing old fashioned about the ’57’s bucket seats and console, covered with gray Symphony Ultra-Leather. It’s a material so soft that it makes a baby’s bottom feel like rhinoceros hide. The ’57’s distinctive V-shaped gauge cluster is packed with Autometer instruments fronted by a Lecarra steering wheel perched on a late model column. Wiring for the ’57’s entire electrical system was done with a Dallas, Texas-made Painless Performance Products harness. The ice-cold air conditioning unit is from Frigi-Cool, also of Dallas.

The eight-year project turned out to be young Jon’s Ph.D. in everything about custom building a vehicle from the ground up. Not only was the upholstery done in-house, Jon learned how to do bodywork as well. Once the sheetmetal was prepped, Jack, a PPG certified painter to the highest degree, shot the entire truck in PPG Platinum Silver, and then came back with PPG Sunburst Orange to make up the second color in the two-tone scheme with graphics. On the center of the tailgate, the graphics blend into a depiction of a pair of eyes, hence Jon’s “Eyes of Texas” moniker for the truck. James Crawford, a pinstriper out of Garland, Texas, pulled it all together with a Mack Sword Striper loaded with One-Shot.

It’s been a long road for Jon and his ’57. It took the father and son duo 8 years to complete the build just in time for Jon’s senior year in high school, and then another 5 years for it to hit the pages of Custom Classic Trucks. These days, Jon’s got a wife, with a little gearhead in training, and the feller that saved the old ’57 Chevy from the scrapper? He’s a Grandpa still hard at it building some of Texas’ finest rods and customs. CCT